Doctors in Arizona operated on Rosemary Alvarez after she started feeling numbness in her arm and blurred vision.
Ms Alvarez went to the emergency room twice and had an x-ray, but everything appeared normal.
It was only when doctors took a closer look at a scan that they discovered something very disturbing.
Neurosurgeon Dr Peter Nakaji said: "Once we saw the MRI we realised this is something not good. It's something down in her brain stem which is as deep in the brain as you can be."
Ms Alvarez was taken into the operating room where Dr Nakaji and his colleagues were expecting to remove a tumor.
Once we saw the MRI we realised this is something not good.Neurosurgeon Dr Peter Nakaji on finding a worm in a woman's brain.
On a video of the surgery, Dr Nakaji can be heard laughing after he discovered the worm.
He said: "I'm sure this is a very strange response for the people in the operating room.
"But it was because I was so pleased to know that it wasn't going to be something terrible."
Doctors removed the worm and believe Ms Alvarez will not have any long-lasting health problems.
It is not known where she picked up the worm.
Experts said worms can come from eating undercooked pork or spread by people who do not wash their hands after using the bathroom, according to reports.
"It only takes one person who is spreading it constantly to get a lot of people exposed and some of those people are going to go on to develop this problem," Dr Nakaji said.
Ms Alvarez, who is now healthy, said she hopes people learn lessons from her story.
"Wash your hands, wash your hands," she said.
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